Pokémon: Xerneas and the Gateway To Paradise
by RoboMonkey2012
Summary: Ash Ketchum and his new companions are visiting a cliffside city known as Penedo Vida, and Ash is naturally on the lookout for new adventures and surprises. But when he gets a surprising phone call and a dangerous mission, he and his friends have to be prepared to face something completely unexpected, with more hanging in the balance than Ash had ever expected. (changed name)
1. Tempest

Pokémon: Xerneas and the City Of Life

By RoboMonkey2012

* * *

~Prologue: Tempest~

* * *

Wind and rain whipped at the tails of a green raincoat as churning gray water thrashed against the jagged cliffs of slick, wet rock. Rubber boots squeaked unsteadily on a hard, well-used ropes of the ladder flailing madly and slapping the cliffside. The feet inside the boots were cold and numb with fear, toes clenching and unclenching as the one they belonged to tried to relax. Young hands with chilled fingers gripped the slippery ropes like a lifeline as the boy holding the wildly flapping rope ladder put his booted foot onto the next rung and slowly but surely climbed, wind and rain going in every direction and the sea below him crashing against the rocks angrily.

With a shout of victory immediately ripped away by the wind, the boy pulled his waterlogged body onto the top of the cliff, the sea continuing it's thrashing and the wind and rain relentlessly howling and pouring like some kind of living waterfall.

The boy stood on the grass, a shade of emerald green dulled by the darkness of the storm, and started to run. His hand shielded his eyes from the rain as he blinked water away. Adrenaline coursed through his body with every heartbeat and every dull pound of his boots on the grass.

Not very many thoughts were going through his mind at the time, though among them were:

_Maybe there's some kinda shelter up ahead._

_ I'm close. I'm very close._

_ Gah, no way I'm here already. It's only been a week._

_ I just fixed these pants, dangit!_

_ I could really go for a sandwich about now._

_ At least I'm still alive._

_ There's glow paint on my jeans and it's really clashing with the atmosphere and I'm going to die oh my gosh..._

That last one probably wasn't relevant to the situation but nonetheless it bothered him. Common sense, however, stopped him from having a nervous breakdown at that particular moment.

The hill he was climbing was getting steeper and steeper. He grabbed at weeds and jutting rocks to keep his balance. He swallowed some dirt(it tasted like wintergreen for some odd reason), but it was worth it.

Panting heavily, his brown hair plastered to his forehead, he surveyed the area below him.

He thrust his hands into the air in victory.

"I found it!" he shouted to the storm, pounding . "I found it!"

* * *

**With the arrival of Gen VI undoubtedly there comes guesses as to what happens. Naturally I'm incorporating my own into this fic. It's come to my understanding that it may not be 100% accurate once more information is revealed on Pokémon X and Y, but that's alright with me, considering this isn't canon and will never be canon. The area the fic takes place in is of my own invention and, as background information, based on Ireland. I was guessing that there would be some place loosely based off of Ireland, considering the new region's inspiration drawing from western Europe. Perhaps there will be or perhaps not, but once it's up, this fic ain't changing. (Unless I decide to rewrite it in college but who knows, really.)**

**Anywho, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are always welcomed, but the first three get browkies!**

**-Keep Writing!**


	2. Cliffside

Pokémon: Xerneas and the City Of Life

By RoboMonkey2012

Chapter 1: Cliffside

Ash Ketchum squinted in the bright sunlight, tugging his cap further out over his slightly-sunburned cheeks. Birds, familiar and unfamiliar, called out to each other in the cloudless blue sky. A wide grin spread between Ash's ears.

"This is gonna be awesome!" he said to no one in particular, clapping his gloved hands together.

The pikachu on his shoulder, who had until then been dozing peacefully in the warm sun, yawned hugely and blinked, taking in the surroundings.

"Hey pikachu, check out all the cool pokémon," Ash said excitedly to his partner. "Would'ja believe we're only a few hundred miles west of Kanto?"

"Pika!" pikachu said in agreement.

"It's awesome!" Ash's teammate, a small girl named Luna(technically Princess Annabelle Luanne, but that was such a mouthful everyone just called her Luna), piped up from Ash's other shoulder.

Luna's blue eyes widened, as did pikachu's. The both of them launched themselves off of Ash's shoulders and ran across the pristine white sand to something that had caught their eye. Ash was caught by surprise and fell backwards and landed flat on his back, sending up a spray of kicked-up sand from his feet.

"Wait, princess! Your mom told me-" Ash said futilely as Luna and pikachu ransacked the nearest ice cream vendor's stand, leaving the poor vendor stunned and really unsure what to do.

Ash set his head back on the sand and watched birds fly around above, squinting against the sun's glare.

"...No ice cream without permission," Ash finished lamely.

An hour later, Ash, pikachu, and Luna were navigating their way through the long, people-filled streets of the city of Penedo Vida.

"Nii-san! I want that!" Luna kept saying, tugging on Ash's ears. Over and over again.

"Where's Brock or Cilan when you need 'em," Ash mumbled to himself as his ears are tugged. "I'm not used to being responsible!"

"_Nii-san! I want that!_" Luna said, louder, rocking herself back and fourth on Ash's shoulders.

Ash grabbed the nearest railing to prevent from falling. "Gah, princess, don't do that!"

"Look," said Luna, turning Ash's head to a store smooshed in between other stores lining the side of the street. Ash read the jutting sign decorated in old-looking chimes and trinkets. It was something written in a different form of writing, similar to Unown Script but undoubtedly different.

It was the kind of store that you see in movies, where all manner of strange or occult things happen to the unwitting protagonists. Wizards, dragons, rabid ice cream cones-anything to get the plot moving. More often than not, someone important died.

"Looks cool," said Ash cheerfully, as he was very much not one of those people who notices these things. He'd always left that to Misty or May or Dawn or Iris. He'd never admit it in a million years, but they'd always had the clearest heads of the group.

"Go in," Luna instructed him, nudging him forward.

Ash moved his feet towards the store, squeezing around passing people.

"Come on, Nii-san! You're too slow!" said Luna, grabbing Ash's forearm and dragging him through the door,

It was a cluttered little place, with trinkets everywhere. Ash had to watch where he stepped. It kind of reminded him of his bedroom back in Kanto. How had he ever found anything?

"Uh, excuse me," someone behind Ash said.

Ash turned. There was a teenage boy standing behind him, Brock's age, maybe? He had brown hair covered in a green bandana and wore jeans and an apron, and he was holding a push broom. He obviously worked in the shop. The nametag on his bandana read Artie Summers.

"Yeah, is something something-oh..." said Ash, taking notice of Luna, being held by the hood of her dress by the employee Artie.

"Sorry, Nii-san," said Luna sheepishly.

Ash sighed and covered his face with his hand. "Luna, we will talk about this later. What am I paying for, sir?"

Artie set Luna down beside Ash and patted her head. "Since nothing's broken, I'll let this slide. But I am gonna have to ask you to leave."

"Fair enough," said Ash. "I'm sorry, I need to keep a better eye on her."

"All by yourself?" Artie asked, looking Ash up and down. "You seem kinda young."

"That's what I said," said Ash, picking up Luna and pikachu. "Anyway, I'll be leaving now. Know of any good places to eat?"

"Wait. Wait. Before you go..." said Artie. He put his tongue between his teeth and straightened Luna's pigtails that stuck out the sides of her head, pikachu's position on Ash's left shoulder, and Ash's hat had apparently not been perfectly straight.

"Uh...okay," said Ash as Artie finished.

"Perfection," said Artie, satisfied. "And now I see, you're very well color-coordinated for someone your age...was this on purpose?"

"Color what?" Ash asked.

"I think you are, that is simply amazing," Artie murmured. "You know what, lunch. My treat."

Ash, pikachu, and Luna simply stared.

Ash didn't quite know why Artie Summers, part-time employee of a shop that sold antique trinkets to passing trainers and tourists, full-time artist and interior decorator, decided to treat him, Luna, and pikachu to lunch at a very nice sidewalk café a few streets down from the store, but hey, he didn't judge.

"This is awesome!" Ash said through his gigantic mouthful of meatball sub. He sprayed little bits of marinara sauce across the table with every syllable, which was why Luna had decided to move and sit on Artie's shoulder at the seat left of Ash, pikachu happily chowing down across from them, and eat her PB&J without the immediate threat of Ash spit and tomato sauce as an unwanted garnish.

"I'm glad you like it, Ash," said Artie.

"Nii-san eats everything," Luna volunteered. "He even ate pokémon food once 'cause we ran out of people food."

"It was actually pretty good," said Ash. "Until I started burping fire. That wasn't fun."

"It was funny, though," said Luna. "It's got a billion hits now 'cause I posted it on the internet."

"Ah..." Artie managed. "How...never mind, I don't want to know."

"You really don't," Ash said out of the corner of his mouth.

"Anyway..." said Artie, slightly uncomfortable. "What brings you two to Penedo Vida?"

"We're goin' to-" Luna began, but is cut off by Ash's hand over her mouth.

"Sorry, we're not supposed to say where we're going," said Ash. "Safety risk. Her parents would have my head."

"Okay then," said Artie, shrugging.

"We're kind of playing this by ear, so far," said Ash. "It's a little weird for me, actually."

"How so? Not used to responsibility?" Artie asks.

"Yeah, pretty much," said Ash, wiping tomato off his face.

"It gets better, trust me," said Artie. "So you're a pokémon trainer, right?"

Ash opened his mouth to say something, but stops and thinks for a minute before saying. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Just in case," said Artie. Ash chose not to ask.

Luna climbed off of Artie and tugged on Ash's sleeve. "Nii-san, I wanna leave."

"Just a second, princess," said Ash. He started to take some money out of his pocket. "Artie, how much do I...?"

"On the house," said Artie. "Just don't break anything."

Ash sighed in relief. "Good. Well, it was nice meeting you, but we kinda have to go now."

Pikachu hopped onto Ash's head and Luna onto his shoulders as Ash waved to Artie and walked away.

Artie waved back. "Nice kids," he muttered to himself. "Though he seems familiar."

When the sun was finishing setting, most people were off the streets, and Luna had fallen asleep on his shoulders, Ash was still wandering the streets of Penedo Vida looking for the Pokémon Center or anything remotely resembling one.

"Pi-i-ka," Pikachu groaned, slumping over on Ash's head.

"I know you're tired, but I think we're almost there, if the map's right," said Ash, turning the map around and squinting at it.

The streets were lit with old-fashioned oil lamps that provided a dim orange glow over the now-empty winding, stone streets running horizontally on the cliff Penedo Vista was built into. Ash stood at the very top of the cliff at the point the city flops over the top and runs flat like a normal city, but keeping its old-fashioned charm. There was a stunning view of the sun sinking over the ocean, but Ash was more interested in finding a place to stay for the night.

"Agh, we'll never find the center at this rate," Ash complained. "And I'm hungry!"

"Pika-chu, pikapi," said pikachu to Ash.

Ash sighed. "I know complaining won't solve anything, but it makes me feel better."

"Pika," Pika sighed.

"Gee, thanks," said Ash sarcastically. "As if I didn't get enough digs at my IQ from the girls."

Pikachu whapped Ash in the back of the head with his tail.

"You can be really unhelpful sometimes, you know that?" Ash said to his partner, wrestling with the map again.

The gentle snoring from Ash's head told him pikachu had fallen asleep.

"And now I'm talking to myself," Ash sighed.

Ash's ears pricked up when he heard the sound of a can being kicked aside and clattering on the concrete. He turned his head to see a flash of orange, yellow, and blue. Over the steadily decreasing din of activity in the city, he heard footsteps, running, with a sense of urgency.

Ash tucked Luna and pikachu into his backpack(it was still surprising they could both fit; as far as Ash knew, his backpack hadn't gotten any bigger since Unova) and started following the footsteps.

He tip-toed at first, rounding the corner onto a wider street leading to a large fountain in some form of square, but as the footsteps he heard rounding more corners, he walked faster...and faster...until before he knew it he was sprinting down the streets, running in zigzags through alleyways and vaulting over garbage cans.

It was definitley a person he was chasing, he decided, seeing what was unmistakably an arm at one point. Tall, slender, fit. Red hair...it sounded awfully familiar, but you could never really be sure. Ash ran into a lot of familiar people.

A crash and a shout of pain came from the nearest end street. Ash whipped around the corner and nearly crashed into the stone wall himself before stopping and backing up.

"What in the..." Ash sputtered, seeing the person he'd been chasing.

It was a very, _very_ familiar-looking girl with red hair cut short and jagged about the base of her skull, wearing a short yellow tank top that bared most of her midriff and blue shorts that ended mid-thigh. Her feet were bare. She hadn't seen Ash, and there was a good chance she had no idea he'd been following her.

Ash stood, stunned. There was no way she would be _here_, of all places. There was no reason that made sense, at least to him.

Why would the one and only Misty of Cerulean City, Kanto be in Penedo Vida, four hundred miles away from where she was supposed to be? It made no sense.

_Aliens, then. Aliens brought Misty here,_ he thought sardonically.

But there was no doubting that it was Misty. A couple of years had passed since they'd seen each other, and the part of Ash that made him a twelve-year-old boy noticed that those years had certainly been kind, so she looked slightly different, but nothing bad. She'd grown a few inches taller(though so had Ash, which he was glad of now that he didn't have to look up at her anymore. If he were bold, he'd say he was taller, but he kind of doubted that), she was leaner and skinny in an athletic way, not so much a scrawny ten-year-old way, and there was a sprinkling of freckles over her face, back, and shoulders. Perhaps she'd gotten in touch with her inner ginger and started stealing souls. She'd apparently dropped the suspenders and added a few inches to her shorts, probably because she'd filled out around the hips, too, and no longer needed them, even if they did look pretty cute.

Ash reminded himself to breathe and stop staring or he was gonna get hit with a giant hammer all women seemed to be able to produce out of thin air. Even Luna and she was only three, he added with a shudder.

"M...Misty?" he managed, clearing his throat.

She turned and her jaw dropped.

"No way," she said breathlessly. "Ash? Ash Ketchum?"

"This just got so much weirder," Ash said.

"Was it not weird beforehand?" Misty asked. "Weirdness follows you around like...like a magnet or something."

"It was pretty normal, actually," said Ash. "What are you even doing here?"

Misty smiled tensely and nodded her head. "Oh, regular stuff," she said. "You?"

"Same," said Ash.

Cue the awkward silence.

"So, the Pokémon Center-" said Ash.

"Yeah, it's close," said Misty, relieved the awkward pause was over. "Ah, nice to see you again..."

"You too," said Ash.

The awkwardness between the two as they walked side-by-side to the pokémon center was thick enough you could cut it with a knife.

Ash told Misty about his latest journey, and the fact that both a three-year-old and a pikachu fit into his backpack. Misty brought up the fact that he hadn't called her since she saw him in Hoenn. There wasn't much talking after that.

Ash didn't quite understand why it was so hard for them to talk to each other. If they were ten, they'd just get right down to arguing over sock style preferences and that would be that. But they weren't. Misty seemed really, really mad at him, but not yelling-mad, quiet-mad, which was about ten times worse. Like how your parents being disappointed at you is worse than them being mad. And Ash really, really didn't get it. What did he do wrong?

He thought that if he ever saw Misty again, he'd be happy. Everything would be alright again. But it's not, and Ash didn't understand why.

_Why do girls have to be so freaking complicated?_ Ash shouted in his head, mentally pulling his hair out.


	3. Wham

Pokémon: Xerneas and the City Of Life

By RoboMonkey2012

Wham

The next morning, Ash woke up in a pokémon center room on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. The previous night felt fuzzy, like it had all been a dream. _It couldn't have been a dream, though,_ Ash thought. _My imagination sucks and that was way too real._

"Morning, Nii-san!" Luna said cheerfully, straddling his stomach and knocking Ash's early-morning thoughts away.

"Hi, princess," said Ash groggily, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. His stomach makes a sound like a lion roaring inside a cave.

"Pika-chu," said Pikachu irritably from the nightstand, folding his ears against his head. "Pi, pika-pi-chu!"

"Man, I'm starving," said Ash aloud, sitting up and putting a hand on his stomach.

"Let's go get breakfast, Nii-san!" Luna says, jumping off the bed and tugging at Ash's pajama pants.

"Hold on," says Ash, standing up and looking at the top bunks of the bunk beds. Misty had come with Ash to the room and went to sleep on the top bunk, Ash reasoned. If she's here, then it wasn't a dream after all.

No traces of temperamental redhead there. The covers were immaculate and wrinkle-free, the pillows untouched. So unless Misty had left over three hours before Luna, Pikachu, or Ash had woken up, it was a dream.

_Why would I be dreaming about Misty, though? _Ash asked himself. _Isn't it time for breakfast? I mean, yeah, she's my friend. I could go for some breakfast about now. Yeah, we've been apart for a couple years, but I've never dreamed about her before. Man, I'm starving._

"Good idea, princess," Ash said, picking up his backpack and slapping his hat onto his head.

Ash placed Luna on one shoulder and pikachu on the other and walked out the door, putting thought of Misty out of his mind in favor of thoughts of waffles and breakfast pizza.

Now Ash Ketchum figured that he knew some stuff. He was a great pokémon trainer and battler. He could recite the Kanto pokédex by heart. He could keep pikachu calm when he was surrounded with ketchup. He was pretty smart, right? With what mattered, at least.

But he didn't know the first thing about girls.

They were confusing and complicated and never made any sense. Even after he'd traveled with at least one at a time in past years, all he really knew about them was that they were loud and they liked clothes. He didn't quite see what made Brock fall head-over-heels for every pretty and older than twelve girl he met, but he'd kind of always figured it was a Brock thing.

_Only one thing to do to solve my Misty dream problem, then,_ Ash decided as he licked sausage crumbles off his fingers.

"Hey princess? We should go back to the Pokémon Center for a little bit," Ash said. "I need to make a few phone calls."

When Luna was situated on the PC waiting room couch playing with Pikachu, Ash was at the nearby pay phone terminal, waiting for Brock to pick up.

_Booeep. "Ash? Is that you?"_

"Uh, yeah. Listen, Brock, I could use some advice-"

_"Ah, it's been forever since we last talked! How're ya doing, squirt?"_

"Since when do you call me squirt?"

_"Since right now. Now what do you need?"_

"Okay, well, you know Misty?"

_"Yeah, what about her?"_

"Well, I kinda..."

_"Kinda kissed her? Kinda made out with her? Kinda...y'know..."_

"No, no, and ick! Why would I do that?"

_"Biology is a funny thing, Ash."_

"What does that even mean?"

_"You know what, never mind. You don't need to know."_

"Darn right I don't. I kinda had this dream about Misty last night, and I was wondering why."

_"Ah, the wet dream! I remember my first time, I was about your age, actually."_

"What? No, I wasn't wet when I woke up. What are you talking about?"

_"...I forgot, you don't know what a wet dream is."_

"Of course I do, it's a dream where you wake up all sweaty."

_"Ah...sure. Of course. Now what did this dream entail?"_

"Well, I was standing on the street corner. Pikachu and Luna-she's my new companion-were asleep, so I put them both in my backpack. They both fit(since Luna's only three), which was kinda surprising. And then I saw this flash of orange and blue and yellow around a corner, and it looked familiar, so I decided to follow it. And so I chased it, and it was Misty. She came to the Pokémon center with us, and when I woke up she was gone."

Silence on the other end. Brock was apparently thinking.

_"Interesting. Very interesting."_

"Uh...okay?"

_"There's only one thing to do. Call her."_

"What?"

_"Call Misty! Dial up Cerulean City right now, go on, do it!"_

"But I-"

_"Don't argue with me! Do it!"_

_ CLUNK._

Ash frowned at the handset. "What good will that do?" he wondered aloud. "Ah well, only one way to find out."

Ash was about to dial Cerulean City's number when a pen flew from the front desk and hit him in the back of the head.

"Ash Ketchum!" the Nurse Joy behind the desk called. "You have a phone call!"

"Ow!" Ash said, rubbing the back of his head. "Okay, coming."

Ash picked up the handset of the phone Nurse Joy handed him(a different Nurse Joy; the late-teens pen-throwing Nurse Joy was being scolded by a forty-something Joy, obviously the boss of the Joy operation at that particular Pokémon Center) and was expecting a call from his mother reminding him to change his underwear.

It wasn't what he got. Instead he got a call from Cerulean City, a very panicky-sounding Daisy on the other end.

_"Ash!"_

"What? Daisy? Is something wrong?"

_"Heck yeah! Lily and Violet and I got back from our cruise and the gym was totally wrecked and Misty was gone!"_

"What? Where did she go?"

_"Well, we think she went to Mars-we have no idea, you idiot!" _

Ash flinched. "Hurtful. Well, what do you need me to do?"

_"Just keep an eye out. Where you are isn't too far off from Kanto. Maybe she went looking for you or something."_

"I'll do my best, Daisy."

_CLUNK._

Ash hung up the phone, more confused than before he asked Brock for advice. Though he was partly glad he didn't get the chance to call; what would he have said, had Misty been there? "I had a dream with you in it last night." That would go over well, knowing Misty.

"Who was that, Nii-san?" Luna piped up from his side.

"No one you need to worry about, princess," said Ash, rubbing Luna's red hair.

"Was it about that girl you dreamed about last night?" Luna asked innocently. Ash felt a cold, sharp rod stick itself through his heart with that question.

Ash mentally kicked himself. He'd forgotten about the whole Togepi-emotional-connection-stuff that Luna, being a princess of the Togepi Paradise, possessed. Which loosely meant he was in charge of a psychic three-year-old.

Well, great. Just great.


	4. Determination

Pokémon: Xerneas and the Gateway To Paradise

By RoboMonkey2012

* * *

Determination

* * *

"Okay, well, first thing to do is call her. Wait, we already called Cerulean and that's where she went missing from. We call her cell phone, then! Wait, does Misty even have a cell phone?" Ash ranted to himself as he quickly walked through the busy streets of Penedo Vida towards the police station.

"Nii-san, you're going too fast!" Luna wailed, trotting behind Ash to keep up with his quick pace. "If you're gonna go fast, pick me up!"

"Pikachu pikapi!" Pikachu said worriedly.

"Oh man, what if she's in trouble or something? What was she even doing? Aw, man, now I wish I'd called more often!" Ash continued ranting, not hearing Luna.

"Nii-san, wait for me!"

"Pikachu!"

"Wait, what if she got kidnapped by Team Rocket or something? I think I'd explode. Is she even still alive. Oh man, what if we never find her?"

"Nii-san, you're not listening!"

"Pi-i-ka!"

"I'm the worst best friend ever I didn't even call her and now she's probably really mad at me what if she doesn't even remember me I think I would die oh man..."

"Nii-san, lookout!"

"Pikapi!"

"There's no doubt about it she's mad at me oh ma-" _WHAM._

Luna caught up to Ash, whose face was flattened against the glass doors of the Penedo Vida police station. She folded her arms at him in a _serves-you-right-Ash-Ketchum_ gesture that was a dead ringer for Misty's, except with chubbier cheeks and a poutier lower lip.

Pikachu sighed in exasperation.

Ash, pulling together what was left of his dignity, pulled open the door and walked inside.

Luna and pikachu watched him go.

"Pika?" pikachu asked Luna.

"Nope, I'm gonna do some _real_ investigating," said Luna with a stubborn gleam in her eye Pikachu had seen one too many times.

"Pika, pikachu!" pikachu protested.

"I'm gonna be fine if you come too," says Luna, picking up Pikachu(who was about half her size) and walking down the streets of Penedo Vida.

Pikachu could only sigh and pray this would be over soon.

* * *

"Misty. M-I-S-T-Y. As in the Cerulean City Gym Leader from Kanto?" Ash said to the hopeless intern at the front desk as he was filing a missing person report. He was beginning to feel irritated.

"We don't handle foreign affairs here," said the flustered intern.

"It's not foreign! Kanto's only five hundred miles away!" Ash protested. "Plus, I'm pretty sure she's in the region."

"I-I'm sorry sir, but we don't have inter-regional reports. I could direct you to the offices that do, if it helps," said the intern.

"Yeah, do that," said Ash.

"H-however we don't have those offices here, they're located in the capital city of-" the intern began, cut off by Ash slamming his fist onto the counter.

"I am looking for someone who may be in mortal danger. Forget the rules and help me find her!" Ash growled.

The intern shrank back into his chair. "I-I'm sorry, sir, but we can't help you find your girlfriend here. If you like, I could direct you to-"  
Ash shut him up with a glare, too busy being angry to react to Misty being called his girlfriend. "You know what? Forget you. I'm going somewhere else."

"H-have a nice day," the intern said weakly as Ash stormed out.

It was then Ash noticed the lack of a familiar weight on his shoulders. "Luna?" he asked, looking around for the bundle of chaos and seeing nothing. "Pikachu?"

Ash sighed. "Fine time for Team Rocket to become ninjas," he groaned, starting to run down the street calling for Luna and pikachu.

* * *

"Aw, man, I'm in trouble," Ash muttered to himself after looking for Luna for an hour and seeing nothing.

He slumped against a nearby building in defeat. "I'm going to be chopped up and used as fertilizer..."

Ash heard something over the steady thrum of activity in the city. The sound of running footsteps. A gust of wind followed, wind that smelled like fresh grass and ocean. No one around Ash seemed to hear the footsteps or feel the wind.

"Have I gone crazy?" Ash muttered to himself.

Ash started following the footsteps. The wind gusts kept happening. When he breathed in the air, energy and life surged through Ash's veins. He felt as if he could walk on air.

Before he knew it, he was sprinting at full-tilt through the city, and out of the city. The footsteps faded, but the wind still guided Ash past the city limits and along the monorail tracks into the nearly endless expanse of hills and emerald-green grass and clear blue sky.

Ash skidded to a halt at the cliff at the far side of the island Penedo Vida was on. It was a small island, only a mile or two across, which was how Ash had run so far without collapsing. That didn't stop him from being exhausted and having to sit down at the edge of the cliff, where the grass halted at the sheer drop and the ground gave way to rock and, dozens of feet below, the pristine white sand of Penedo Vida.

"Why'd you bring me here, huh?" Ash shouted at the wind, which ruffled his hair and tugged at his hat. Ash clapped his hand over his hat to keep it in place. He liked his hat.

Ash sat down at the edge of the cliff and dangled his legs over the edge, pounding his heels against the rock.

He stopped pounding and sighed. What was he doing here, anyway?

The weird wind that smelled like fresh grass blew towards the ocean. Ash couldn't chase it further, unless he learned how to fly.

Ash chuckled at the mental image of himself with tiny pidgey wings, fluttering across the ocean without a care in the world.

_Now if this were one of my old adventures_, Ash mused. _I'd meet someone, probably a girl Brock'd fall head-over-heels for, that found some old book that told us about a legendary poké would be some person that wanted to catch the pokémon that we'd have to stop, and I'd end up being some kind of Chosen One. It's always me, isn't it?_

Ash sighed. Life always had to throw him a darn curveball when he just wanted to relax. The air filled his lungs with relaxing fresh air. He blinked a few times. His eyelids felt heavy.

"Nii-san!"

Oh great, now he was hearing things.

"Nii-san!"

_Shut up, brain, I'm tired,_ he thought, taking a deep breath and beginning to feel drowsy.

"Nii-san!"

Ash turned around. Oh look, there were Luna and pikachu and that guy Artie from earlier, in a jeep.

"Hi, princess," Ash said, rubbing his eyes.

Luna jumped out of the jeep and ran over to Ash. "Nii-san, guess what!"

"What?" Ash asked, deciding to humor her.

Ash couldn't have prepared himself for what came out of the little girl's mouth next.

"I know how to find Misty!"


	5. Divine

Xerneas and the Gateway To Paradise

By RoboMonkey2012

* * *

Divine

* * *

It was at that moment Ash's brain stopped working.

"Nii-san? You okay? I said I knew how to find Misty!" said Luna, waving her hand in front of Ash's face.

Ash said something really intelligent like, "Uh, okay."

"You wanna know how?" Luna asked.

"Sure," said Ash.

"Well, the price for in-four-may-tee-on is one ice-cream bar," said Luna in a businesslike manner. "My policy is up-front payment, and there are no inceptions."

Ash grumbled something about Luna being too smart for her own good before saying, "Fine," knowing it was hopeless to argue with a three-year-old princess that always got her way. _Always._

* * *

"I still can't believe you "charmed" that poor guy Artie into doing your bidding," Ash said to Luna. "Especially after you nearly wrecked his shop."

Luna munched happily on her ice-cream bar, dripping ice cream and chocolate onto Ash's hat. "I'was eathy," she said proudly, her mouth full of ice cream. "No one cn'rethith my tharmth!"

"No one can resist your charms, eh?" Ash chuckled.

"Ith thrue!" said Luna, whapping Ash in the back of the head.

"I don't doubt it, princess," said Ash. "Now, you were saying something about how you knew how to find Misty?"

"Yah! I know thow to fin' ther," said Luna proudly.

"Can you tell me?" Ash asked patiently.

"Okay," said Luna. "Bu' we need thoo find Arthie-than from the thop."

Ash opened his mouth to ask why, but thought better of it. "Alright then," he said.

Pikachu, meanwhile, sighed from Ash's other shoulder. He was going to have to keep that idiot from getting himself killed again, wasn't he? He was getting too old for this.

* * *

"How do I find Misty?"

Artie nearly dropped the blue glass foot-tall gyrados he was carrying when Ash asked this.

_Whoops, I guess I kinda surprised him,_ Ash thought sheepishly.

"How do you what-now?" Artie asked, turning around to face Ash. "Who in the world is Misty?"

Ash gave Luna a dirty look. "I thought you said Artie'd know how to find Misty."

"I din' say that," said Luna innocently.

Artie set the gyrados on a shelf full of glass spheres and sculptures, making sure the color of the statue matched the ones of the glass, and that it was at an exact forty-five degree angle to the green chespin and cyan golduck.

"Hey Artie-san?" Luna asked, placing her hands behind her back and tilting her head to the side inquisitively.

"Yes?" Artie asked, tilting the gyrados a fraction of a degree to the left. "I hope whatever you're asking is going to be fast; I've got a shipment of glass pokémon coming in from the Orange Islands and I can't miss it. Those movers are frightfully clumsy and have no respect for order."

"What can you tell me 'bout the Togepi Paradise?" Luna asked innocently.

"Hmm," Artie mused. "Off the top of my head? Not much. But..."

Luna planted her little hands on her hips and gave Ash a smug smile while Artie began looking around in the large bookshelves at the back of the store.

"It's here somewhere-oh really, Miriam, placing a leather-bound book before a paperback, ridiculous-ah-hah!" Artie mumbled to himself as he came upon the book he was looking for; a textbook-sized book bound in red leather with a blue gemstone in each corner. On the spine and front cover were words stitched in some weird ancient font: _Ye Oldyn Mithes and Lygnds of Aynch'nt Kayntoe aynd Joehtoh, by Sir Eafrurros the Bolde ove Her Hyness's Kyngdome ove Enmotnen d'Kael._

"Got a few words spelled wrong there..." Ash muttered to himself as Artie brought the large tome over to a nearby old-looking table.

Had Ash been in a lame movie or a book, Artie would have dramatically swept or blown a layer of dust off the cover before opening the tome, whose pages would glow with divine light for no reason other than to create drama.

But he wasn't, so Artie just set the perfectly-undusty-and-clean book on the table and motioned for Ash and Luna to come over. When he opened the book, it seemed to be a perfectly ordinary book written during Mediaeval times in Kanto. Ash couldn't make out any of the words in the fancy script, but he was lucky there was a picture on almost every page.

"What's the book got to do with finding Misty?" Ash asked, a finger tracing the triangles on the watercolored togepi's shell on page 394, the page the book had been opened to.

"Nii-san, y'know how you told me that Nee-san had a togepi she carried 'round everywhere?" Luna asked.

"I never told you about that," Ash said, perplexed.

"...Oh," said Luna. "Well, is it true?"

"Yes..." said Ash. "Princess, have you been reading my mind?"

"Nope," Luna lied badly.

Ash took that moment to asses how completely screwed he was with a psychic three-year-old. _Very screwed_, he decided.

"Well, the togepi also evolved an' went to guard the Togepi Paradise. But there's a cel-lee-bray-shee-on that happens ev'ry ten years where a buncha new togepi are selected to evolve and leave the Paradise. I think that Nee-san wanted to go watch the say-ree-moan-ee where the togepi leave the Paradise 'cause she thinks that her togetic might be there. But I dunno where that happens an' I can't read, so I'm asking Artie-san to look it up," Luna explained.

Ash blinked. "That's...that's brilliant."

"I know!" said Luna proudly.

Artie rapidly began flipping through pages in the book. Pictures of the togepi evolutionary line, red and blue triangles, and a huge black-and-blue creature with multicolored antlers flipped by on page after page of togepi lore.

"Here it is!" Artie announced, stopping on page 627. "The Togetic Exodus!"

"That sounds painful," Ash said offhandedly.

"What's it say?" Luna asked, craning her neck to look at the page.

"Uh, blah blah blah migration, blah blah blah togetic, blah bla-ooh, uh-oh," said Artie.

"Uh-oh good or uh-oh bad?" Ash asked.

"When is uh-oh ever good?" Luna wondered, giving Ash a funny look.

"I don't know, maybe this time," said Ash with a shrug.

"Well," said Artie, scanning over the page. "Does the word "Feuding Legendaries" ring a bell?"

Ash rolled his eyes. "Ugh. More legendaries fighting?" he groaned. "Had enough of that in Sinnoh."

"You've been everywhere, haven't you?" Artie asked.

"Pretty much," Ash said, nodding.

"Whatsa feud?" Luna asked offhandedly, pushing her torso onto the table to look at a picture of several togetic flying out of a blue portal.

"It's a fancy word for a fight," said Artie as Luna pushed the book over and sat criss-cross on the table, still looking curiously at the book.

"What's Nee-san gotta do with a big fight?" Luna asked. "Is she part of a prof-ess-ee in the big book?"

"Well," Artie began, massaging his temples. "On one of the smaller islands in the island chain Penedo Vida's located on, there's an old monument to the legendaries Xerneas and Yveltal. The islanders have a huge festival honoring the balance between the two, or rather, what they represent: life and death."

"What's so wrong with that?" Ash asked. "I like festivals."

"Everything!" Artie erupts. "Festivals are loud and messy and chaotic! People come into my shop and track mud and confetti onto my nice wood floors, and they touch all my merchandise and _de-organize my bookshelf!_ Of all the terrible things to happen, this is _THE...WORST...POSSIBLE..._**_THING!"_**

After he finished, Artie threw his hands up into the air-one on his forehead like an old-timey faiting lady-and collapsed onto the floor dramatically, his feet flying out from under him and landing with a solid _CLUNK_ on the floor.

"Um...okay," said Ash, blinking.

Artie stood up a minute later, making the motion of dusting off his apron, which, in the case of Artie's floor being clean enough to perform surgery on, was purely for aesthetics.

"And in addition to the..._horrible_ problem of having my bookshelves de-organized, the book says the Togetic Exodus happens to fall on the same day as the day Xerneas and Yveltal appear at the monument and battle it out on the first day of the festival at midnight. I don't know why it's at midnight, it just always is," said Artie with a much less dramatic tone and a shudder at the word "horrible."

"Nice to see you've got your priorities straight," Ash deadpanned. "So what you're saying is that Misty's going to be caught in a huge battle between super-powerful legendaries?"

"Pretty much," said Artie.

"So how do we find her?" asked Ash. "This is kinda important. Or, y'know, _really_ important."

"I'll tell you..." said Artie. "After the commercial break!"

"What." said Ash flatly.


End file.
